Over in the Northern Marianas, a new mobile clinic on wheels is the first of its kind on Saipan - bringing much-needed access to healthcare to residents in remote parts of the island.

Halina Palacios, Chief of Outpatient Clinic Services, said, "Everybody when it comes to accessing care has their own barriers, whether it is personal or financial, or even social barriers that they face every day." Some of those barriers are breaking as the Commonwealth Health Care Corporation unveiled a first-of-its-kind mobile clinic on Saipan. 

"This is another way for us to bring the care to them and really open the door for them to access primary care," she added.

Plans for the mobile clinic for the NMI's only hospital began in 2020 and was made possible in part by a block grant through the Northern Marianas Housing Corporation. The bus was shipped in from North Carolina costing over $600,000. It's expected to hit the road in October. 

"The mobile clinic is really meant to be a liaison between the community and the overall CHCC campus here on Navy Hill. We can do well-child checks, we can do regular adult checks. We are going to put women's health on there. The ultimate goal is still to have people get primary care services regularly here at CHCC," Palacios continued.

Those services are now more accessible for residents from all walks of life.  "If we are rolling through your hood and your kid has not been seen for a well child check and they are about to go into school,or you are feeling some symptoms and maybe also have not gotten pap-smear in a while and have not been able to make the arrangements to come in to CHCC, then we can do it that way," she said.